


Die for Me

by cheektocheekinhell



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: But still some slow burn Natzu, F/F, More Nayeon-centric than anything tho, Murder Mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-17 16:14:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29228295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheektocheekinhell/pseuds/cheektocheekinhell
Summary: When a trainee is found dead at the JYP dorms, suspicion falls on the five girls who were set to debut with her. Officer Im Nayeon is called in to assist on the case because of her past experience as a trainee.Itching for an escape from the rural police station she works at, Nayeon finds herself getting more than she bargained for when politics interfere, and she is forced to go undercover as a future member of JYP’s upcoming girl group.
Relationships: Chou Tzuyu/Im Nayeon
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	1. Fall and Fall

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know at any point if you guys feel like I should bump up the rating to explicit or add more trigger warnings.
> 
> Otherwise, I hope you enjoy the story :)

“Hi, I’m Nayeon. It’s nice to meet you!”

The silence she was met with was deafening.

She hadn’t been totally ignored though, seeing as the five girls had bowed when she greeted them.

Nayeon shifted awkwardly, painfully aware that she was still openly holding Kkaengi. She had taken him out in the car when the need for a nap had arose. Her childish attachment to the stuffed bunny seemed silly now, and she tried to subtly keep Kkaengi hidden behind her back. The action felt futile after Nayeon realized that none of them were paying any mind to her. They were all too busy looking at the floor like Nayeon had kicked their puppy at one point or another, and then came back triumphally to brag about it.

Jihyo who had introduced her moments earlier cleared her throat, “A little enthusiasm would be nice.”

A chorus of lifeless ‘Hellos’ rang out throughout the otherwise empty lobby. This was gonna be harder than she thought.

Jihyo sighed, before turning towards her, as if she was considering pushing for an even warmer greeting from her members.

Nayeon shook her head, already embarrassed enough as it was, “No, it’s okay. I’ll take it.”

Apparently satisfied with the acceptance of their welcoming party, all of the five girls seemed to move as one as they began to make a break for the elevators.

Jihyo immediately sprinted after them, abandoning Nayeon and her ten thousand bags at the entrance, “Ah, ah, ah, wait a second.” The girls all halted their movements to instead focus on Jihyo, much to Nayeon’s surprise. She hadn’t actually predicted how much power her friend held over the group. Even while annoyed by Nayeon’s arrival, they all seemed to value Jihyo’s leadership to the point where they were willingly waiting to leave until she dismissed them. “We need to talk about the living arrangements.”

“No need for that, we’ve already put our stuff where we wanted to stay,” one of the girls Nayeon recognized as being Minatozaki Sana informed Jihyo cheerfully. The cheerful expression was quite the turn around from her previous skulking.

“We were in the middle of unpacking,” another girl added, lips pulled into a tight line as if she was holding back a sneer (likely one that would have been directed at her). If Nayeon hadn’t already seen a picture of Myoui Mina sporting a gummy smile, she would have never believed her to be capable of looking anything but intimidating.

Jihyo sent her a worried look and Nayeon understood the silent plea, dropping her suitcase to make her way to the group, “If you guys don’t mind, I’d like to be with Jihyo,” Nayeon said as she approached them cautiously like she would an injured animal.

Mina huffed, as if Nayeon’s very existence was inconvenience to her. Sana simply smiled at her, but Nayeon couldn’t tell for the life of her whether the smile was genuine or not. In the current context, she doubted that it was. The third Japanese member, whose name she remembered to be Hirai Momo, clung tightly to Sana’s arm, keeping her eyes on Nayeon’s hands. Nayeon followed where she was looking to find that she was staring at Kkaengi. She had forgotten to put him back in her bag.

“Since Nayeon is new, and her and I already know each other, we’re going to room together,” Jihyo stated, hopefully not leaving any room for debate. Them being split up would make Nayeon’s job much harder than it needed to be. “Mina, is it okay if you room with Tzuyu and Dahyun?”

Before Mina could even open her mouth, Kim Dahyun spoke up for the first time since Nayeon’s arrival, “No!” Her voice was loud, and even Chou Tzuyu who had so far been scarily stoic, flinched at the sheer volume of it. The tall girl wasn’t nearly as intimidating as her ID picture suggested – she appeared younger as well. Finding everyone’s eyes on her, Dahyun let out a short, nervous laugh. “I mean, we can’t separate you two…” she started tentatively, eventually trailing off.

“You’re same-aged friends,” Momo finished, having finally taken her eyes off of Kkaengi.

“That’s right,” Dahyun exclaimed, pointing approvingly towards Momo, “You two should stay with each other, right Mina?”

Seemingly not ready to be the center of attention, it took a second for Mina to answer, “Um, right. I’d like to stay with you, if that’s alright?” she asked Jihyo softly, a far cry from the girl who had been sending death glares to Nayeon ever since she had set foot in the building.

Jihyo had already clued her in on the fact that her previous roommate would probably insist on staying with them. Apparently, Mina had been fragile ever since losing her friend, and had relied a lot on Jihyo in the last couple of months.

“Of course,” Jihyo agreed easily, “So, Mina, Nayeon and I are gonna take the dorm of three and-”

“No, you can’t do that!” Dahyun interjected urgently.

Jihyo was starting to lose her patience, if the crossing of her arms and the firm tapping of her foot were anything to go by, “And why not exactly?”

Dahyun’s eyes widened comically, “Ehhh, well…yeah, Sana, why not?”

Sana carried over smoothly, “ _Because_ I have an even better idea.” Dahyun nodded frantically at that, seemingly relieved at not having to be the one to explain herself in front of an annoyed Jihyo. “How about you and Mina join Dahyun in the dorm of three, then Nayeon can room with our favorite maknae. That way, Nayeon and Tzuyu can get well acquainted. What do you guys think?”

“It’s perfect,” Dahyun declared, gesturing vaguely towards Nayeon and Jihyo, “Nayeon can share some of her wisdom, and in exchange, maybe Tzuyu can give her some of her youthness-”

“Youth, babe,” Sana corrected.

“-some of her youth back.” Nayeon let out an offended noise at the insult. She wasn’t that old, it wasn’t her fault all of them were babies. “I knew that, by the way,” Dahyun whispered to Sana who responded with a sympathetic nod.

“That sounds good,” Momo added, taking a step backwards and tugging on Sana’s arm.

“Wait, what about what we-”

“Wonderful! Let’s go settle in people, we don’t have all night,” Dahyun interrupted, escaping further questioning from Jihyo by physically running away.

Mina followed a skipping Dahyun, choosing to walk away coolly instead, with a parting pat on Jihyo’s arm.

“Chop, chop,” Momo supplied helpfully as they all but fled towards the elevators.

Jihyo was left dumfounded - her mouth halfway open, like the beginning of an argument had been on the tip of her tongue, but there was no one around to argue with anymore.

“This is going great,” Nayeon commented to Kkaengi, holding him up proudly now that everyone was gone.

Nayeon pretended not to notice the glare Jihyo was sending her way.

“Are you okay with this?”

Nayeon lowered her stuffed bunny to answer that no, obviously she was not okay with this. She stopped herself when she caught sight of a certain Taiwanese girl who had been, unbeknownst to her, the actual target of the question.

“I’d like to room with you, please,” Tzuyu replied slowly, maybe too scared to properly complain about her members not consulting her for sleeping arrangements.

Jihyo sighed, “Listen, I’ll try to talk to the girls. You stay with Nayeon for tonight. She’s good, I promise. A little weird.” Jihyo looked pointedly at Kkaengi nestled in her arms and Nayeon pouted.

“A little weird, but good.”

***

_Past_

Nayeon hated Spring.

She hated Spring with a passion.

The sun would filter through the blossoming cherry trees, enchanting most people with its beauty, while only managing to torture Nayeon by bringing back memories that she would much rather forget.

The night shift was a welcome reprieve, it was easier to forget the season when everything outside was dark and she could pretend that the hot air was but a huge outdoors sauna.

Nayeon spun around in her chair to escape the sunrise that came with the end of her shift, and stretched her sore back. Her arms were high above her head when she made eye contact with Dowoon, sat at the desk behind hers. He quickly averted his eyes. Nayeon snorted at his rapidly reddening ears, probably a direct consequence of the obscene noise that had accompanied her stretching.

“Why are you like this?” Dowoon practically whined while covering his ears as if she hadn’t already seen the blush.

“Because it’s fun.”

He tried to glare at her but failed miserably due to having all the intimidation skills of a cute rabbit. She sent him a satisfied thumbs up along with her best smile to which he responded by dropping his head dramatically on his desk.

Thank God the station’s policy was that there should always be at least two police officers working at the same time. She probably wouldn’t survive the night shift if there wasn’t someone else to prevent her from succumbing to boredom.

Nayeon grabbed a stray eraser on her desk and threw it at Dowoon who just let it hit him with no reaction. Nayeon pouted and was about to fling something heftier at him when the landline phone rang.

She picked it up with one hand while scouring the mess on her desk for the perfect projectile to do some damage.

“Hello, this is Officer Im.” Nayeon got her hand on an empty sharpener and immediately started to aim it at her coworker’s unsuspecting head.

“Im Nayeon, if you fucking hang up on me again, I swear to-“

Nayeon hung up and turned back to look at her target. She closed one eye, hoping it would help her aim. The phone rang again just as she was letting go of the sharpener. Startled, she threw it higher than she was supposed to and it completely missed.

With a sigh, Nayeon picked up the phone, “Hello, this is Officer Im.”

“Please, this is serious. There was-“

Nayeon hung up and ignored Dowoon’s inquiring look to search for the mini pencils she knew would make for excellent ammunition.

“She’s probably worried about you,” Dowoon said tentatively.

They weren’t in the habit of discussing their personal lives, Nayeon wondered why he seemed to want to start now. Maybe the fact that Jeongyeon had called four times already had thrown him off. She usually only called once to check up on her, then let her be when it was clear that Nayeon wouldn’t accept her concern.

“She’s always worried about me,” Nayeon answered, smirking when she found what she was looking for.

Dowoon was ready for the attack this time and began dodging the pencils the best he could. Every time one hit him, he would groan or squeal and Nayeon would maniacally laugh at him. She was suddenly glad that she was working her last shift with him. It granted her some much needed human interaction before gearing up to face the next two weeks all by her lonesome.

The chime of the door’s bell surprised the both of them given the rarity of visitors at this hour. They braced themselves to deal with whoever was in trouble enough to visit their shitty little police station in the middle of nowhere.

Nayeon’s first instinct when seeing Jeongyeon walk in was to get up and slap her behind the head to try and knock some sense into her. Nayeon stopped herself when she saw who she was with. Nayeon became more inclined to shrivel up and die instead, because no doubt some important people had been perve to her acting like a brat. Jeongyeon wasn’t lying when she said it was serious. Nayeon prayed that she wasn’t on speaker when she had repeatedly hung up on her best friend.

“Officer Im?” Nayeon nodded nervously, certain that she had seen the woman who was leading the charge before, but for the life of her couldn’t remember who she was, “I’m Captain Heo Solji of the 12th precinct’s Homicide Division.”

Nayeon stood up hurriedly and bowed as she heard a chair clatter against the floor behind her, probably because Dowoon had knocked it down by bowing too deeply.

“We need your help with a murder case,” Jeongyeon said cautiously, which puzzled Nayeon seeing as the Yoo Jeongyeon she knew would never let being hung up on go without some form of annoyance or another.

Nayeon narrowed her eyes at her, using their special best-friend bond to wordlessly ask her what the fuck was going on. Jeongyeon averted her eyes almost guiltily, effectively avoiding Nayeon’s attempt at telekinesis.

“Hope you don’t mind some overtime, Officer Im,” the Captain added with a tone that indicated that Nayeon didn’t have much of a say in the matter.

And here she had been so ready to go home, flop in bed and cry herself to sleep for the next two weeks.


	2. Hatred Melt Away

_Past_

When a Seoul Police Captain had shown up in person to get her help, Nayeon should have known that it would be for a huge case. Somehow it hadn’t sunk in until she stood next to the JYP building, standing tall in the rising sun with blinding red and blue lights reflecting at its base. She hadn’t been back here in ages. Six years to be exact.

Nayeon shivered.

“It’s not anyone you know, I promise,” Jeongyeon told her and Nayeon felt a reassuring squeeze on her tense shoulder.

Nayeon had seen Captain Heo take one look at her before hurriedly ushering the two policeman that had accompanied them behind the yellow tape, leaving her and Jeongyeon alone.

“Why am I here then?” Nayeon asked, less interested in the answer and more hoping that her best friend would understand her unspoken plea.

She just wanted to go home.

Another squeeze on her shoulder and she fought the urge to shrug the hand off, crossing her arms instead.

“No bullshit?” Nayeon huffed at that. Obviously she didn’t want to hear whatever half-truth they were no doubt planning on feeding her. Jeongyeon took her hand off of Nayeon’s shoulder and went to stand besides her, hardened gaze turned towards the building on the other side of the street, “Any minute now, JYP executives and lawyers are going to storm in there by the hundreds and you can bet your ass that their interest isn’t gonna be to find that poor girl’s killer. They’re gonna want to protect their precious assets, and unfortunately, that includes the majority of our suspects for the murder. We need your knowledge of the company, its staff, its trainees, its artists, its dorms…Everything.”

Nayeon wanted to leave. Of all the days this could have happened, it had to be on April 6th. She had already had her fair share of murders and tragedies, she didn’t need to add some random girl’s death to the list too.

She really wanted to go home.

Nayeon had been all set to flee - to leave behind her best friend on the sidewalk, the scary Captain in the lobby and the dead body inside probably being tiptoed around by the forensics’ team.

Then something caught her eye.

Amongst the swarming police officers and patrol cars was a truck. Nayeon remembered that truck vividly. Of all the things that night, she remembered it the most, and most importantly who had been in it.

“The ME is here,” Jeongyeon pointed out absentmindedly.

The medical examiner hopped out of the back of the truck with far too much enthusiasm for being at a crime scene. Nayeon shivered at the sight, unable to shake the feeling that it was identical to what she had witnessed six years ago. Maybe her mind was simply pulling tricks on her.

The coincidences might have been a tad too much for her brain. The date, the crime scene, the building… everything was so familiar that it felt like her brain was protecting her by making it seem foreign, so as to help her detach herself from the situation.

The more she felt detached from the situation, the more she got the urge to go in. The feeling that this was none of her business and that she had no obligation to help, irked her enough to drown out whatever discomfort was brought onto her.

Nayeon wasn’t good for much in the crime fighting business, but if her knowledge of having been a trainee could lead to solving a murder, who was she to deny the great Seoul Police Department of her help?

With more assurance than she was feeling, Nayeon set off for the entrance of the dorms where Captain Heo was waiting for them. She ducked beneath the yellow tape and held it up when it was clear that Jeongyeon had stayed rooted to place with a dumbfounded look on her face.

“What are you standing there looking like an idiot for? Let’s go.”

Nayeon didn’t have all day.

***

_Present_

Nayeon had been going back and forth between her new room and the lobby for at least the last fifteen minutes. Her new roommate had not moved so much as a muscle to help as Nayeon struggled to bring all her bags to their dorm.

For the first time in two months, Nayeon was glad for all the grueling training Jihyo had made her go through. Had it not been for her insisting that she work out her cardio, Nayeon would have probably been passed out from exhaustion by now.

She hadn’t been out of shape before per say – she was still a police officer after all. However, Nayeon could admit that she had let herself go a bit, rotting away with Dowoon during the night shift. Her annual physical assessment was actually supposed to be coming up in September. Nayeon wondered if she would still have to pass it even if she was undercover trying to catch a murderer.

Nayeon couldn’t believe that she was undercover trying to catch a murderer – God, when had her life become an action movie?

So maybe Nayeon tended to let things get to her head a little. And maybe, more often than not, did something always come back around to rightfully bring her back down back to earth. Literally in this case, as she found herself an inch from death as she tripped on her own feet and almost face planted right into floor. Her suitcases flew into the wall as she hurriedly let them go in order to brace her hands and break her impending fall. A fall that fortunately never came as she somehow managed to levitate before hitting the floor.

“Why aren’t you more careful?”

Ah, so she was not in fact levitating. Unless levitating’s name was Chou Tzuyu.

Nayeon got the impression that the almost disaster had scared Tzuyu more than it had scared her. Tzuyu was breathing hard in her ear, like she had had to run in order to catch her in time. The girl was holding Nayeon so tightly against her that it was seriously starting to hurt.

Jesus, she was not only tall, but also freakishly strong. Nayeon would have to remind herself to add that to her notes later.

“Woah, thanks,” Nayeon said breathlessly, patting the arm that was wrapped around her midriff. Seemingly realizing how she was still holding her, Tzuyu let her go hastily. Nayeon turned to face her and flipped her hair dramatically. “I almost smashed in my beautiful face,” Nayeon commented jokingly, hoping it would hide how embarrassed she was at the Taiwanese being perve to her clumsiness.

Sure, it probably wouldn’t be the last time Nayeon fell victim to her own clumsiness, but she could at least try to limit the damage.

The girl ignored the quip and wordlessly went to open their door.

“You know this wouldn’t have happened if you just helped me carry my stuff,” Nayeon remarked, offended at how Tzuyu was going back to pretending like she didn’t exist.

“Yes,” Tzuyu said matter-of-factly, before entering their dorm without making a move to help her.

Nayeon huffed and stomped her way to the two discarded suitcases that had luckily not made a hole in the wall. She mentally added ‘unwilling to help a fellow trainee in need’ to Tzuyu’s profile that she had built in her head.

As she was picking up her suitcases, Nayeon realized how none of her other stuff was in the hallway anymore. She had been unceremoniously chucking her many, many bags in front of the door instead of properly bringing them in the room. Tzuyu had left the door slightly open and Nayeon just had to push it open with her shoulder to get in.

The room was exactly as Nayeon remembered it to be.

There was small bathroom with a shower right next to the door. Nayeon peeked in to see that it hadn’t been upgraded since her time as a trainee a couple of years ago. It was also located to the left when she walked, while it had been to the right in her last room. Nostalgia mixed with a distinct feeling of dread had her standing in the entry way, rooted in place. Nayeon exhaled shakily as her body fell back into old habits – she took off her shoes and threw them to the side haphazardly.

This was all too painfully familiar.

Forcing herself to move again, Nayeon walked into the mini kitchenette, not looking forward to having to see her roommate. She saw that the appliances also hadn’t been replaced, the old white refrigerator whirring to life every couple of seconds. She had spent far too many nights in front of it, crying herself to sleep because she had to stop herself from eating anything in fear of the next day’s evaluation. If there was one thing she didn’t miss from trainee life, it was the so called ‘diets’ they had them on. Now that she was twenty-two and not an insecure teenager anymore (only an occasionally insecure adult), she realized how fucked up having to starve herself to lose weight was.

Nayeon tore her eyes away from the kitchen and walked towards her new room’s doorway. She hovered there for a moment, watching Tzuyu who had her back turned to her folding her clothes and putting them in the dresser. She was tall, so it was hard to tell, but she didn’t look sickly thin or anything. Nayeon hoped things had changed. She hoped that others didn’t have to suffer from being held to impossible standards like she once had.

Nayeon wanted to ask about how the company was treating her, but held back. A little voice in the back of her mind reminded her that she had to spend her questions wisely, or else people could start to suspect the real reason she was there. That voice sounded suspiciously like Sergeant Nam’s. She could hear him nagging at her about every little thing all the while being annoyingly nice.

“You brought my things in,” Nayeon said instead, finding all her bags on the bottom bunk.

Tzuyu tensed at her voice, before her shoulders quickly sagged and she hummed shortly. Nayeon took that as a ‘yes’ and crossed ‘unwilling to help a fellow trainee in need’ off of her mental observations about the girl. She kept ‘freakishly strong’ though, just in case.

Nayeon made her way to the bunk bed, getting more discouraged by the second as she figured it would probably take her all night to unpack. She sneaked a glance at Tzuyu who was still doing her darndest to ignore her presence. She was putting away the last of her clothes, obviously almost completely settled in. So Nayeon really never had a chance to room with Jihyo, they had already chosen before she even left for the dorms. Nayeon had been told by Jihyo that they had been planning on all returning to live in their old rooms. The company had offered to move them to a different floor, but they refused. Jihyo apparently had simply gone along with what her members wanted, not knowing explicitly why they were insisting on staying on the floor they once shared with their now deceased friend. Jihyo thought that they were probably keeping their rooms, because they couldn’t let go of one of the last reminders they still had of the girl.

All of this sounded very probable to Nayeon, and thinking too hard about it made her brain hurt. It wasn’t on her to figure it out though - she just had to pass on information to the real detectives, while she cozied up to strangers.

Nayeon sighed loudly, picking up and dropping her bags aimlessly, pointedly looking in Tzuyu’s direction once in a while.

“I’m going to take a shower,” Tzuyu announced, stepping out of the room swiftly with a change of clothes under her arm.

Either she couldn’t take a hint or Tzuyu was purposely being dense.

Nayeon pouted, throwing herself on top of her things, unpacking be damned. The bottom bunk was actually really comfortable, and it was a double bed too. Nayeon had never gotten the bottom bunk before, always banished to the top twin bed since she was usually the youngest among the trainees. Except Jihyo, but Jihyo never let her have the bottom bunk either. She had always managed to snatch the better bed with her weird schemes. She somehow time and time again roped Nayeon into competitions with winning the bottom bunk as a reward.

Jihyo always won, of course.

The plumbing made a worrying creaking noise and the shower started running. Nayeon perked up and listened for any movement in the bathroom. Nayeon waited for the telltale sign of someone getting in the shower and when she heard the sound of the running water dampening, she jumped off the bed. It felt wrong to sneak around and go through someone’s stuff, but every time she was at risk of losing her nerve, the promise she made came back to keep her on track. Nayeon had a murder to solve.

She started with the dresser, digging through Tzuyu’s neatly folded clothes, then folding them right back when she was done checking. Nayeon even went through every sock, turning them inside out in case they were hiding anything. She pushed down the urge to simply skim the underwear drawer, and instead thoroughly rummaged around in it. In the end, she felt like a bit of a creep, but at least she hadn’t found anything substantial. Nothing crime related or indicating of murderous intentions. However, there was this interesting set of linger-

Nayeon gasped affronted by her own thoughts and slapped her arm. She really should have snagged a random hot person and hooked up with them before going undercover. Sergeant Nam had omitted the dangers of not having felt the warmth of another person in a while in his teachings of going undercover. Ooh, she should have just slept with _him_ before leaving. He was kind of cute in an annoying type of-

Nayeon cringed at how desperate she was sounding, even in her own head.

“What is wrong with me, Kkaengi?” she asked her stuffed rabbit. He seemed to be judging her from the other side of the room. Tzuyu had placed him neatly in the corner of her bed. “Wait, no. Let’s not open that door, that’s dangerous territory,” she backtracked, quickly shutting up when she realized she was talking out loud to an inanimate object.

Sergeant Nam had told her to supress that particular habit. Apparently, anything she said while thinking she was alone, could easily blow her cover. With a sigh, Nayeon carried on with her search, praying Tzuyu was the type to take long showers.

She was not.

Nayeon had barely started reaching for Tzuyu’s backpack when the shower was turned off.

Too afraid to continue digging if Tzuyu could catch her at any second, Nayeon hurried to her own bed and began randomly taking things out of her bags. She was half-way through mindlessly unpacking her pink suitcase when the door to the bathroom was opened. Nayeon ignored how the girl silently walked back into the bedroom and cautiously kept her back turned to her.

Tzuyu returned the favor by not saying anything as she shuffled around the room. Nayeon tried to focus on unpacking and keeping her poker face - the one she had come up with Sergeant Nam and then tested out on Jihyo. She was more nervous than she had anticipated, but soon enough, Tzuyu was climbing the ladder to go to bed, and she let herself relax a little.

Nayeon had been right, it was 3 a.m. and she was not done unpacking yet.

“This is taking so long…” she whined out loud, aware that Tzuyu had been tossing and turning for the last couple of hours.

She hadn’t even volunteered to help, so rude.

Nayeon took the last of her clothes and shoved them all in one suitcase. She was starting to regret having brought all of her outfits with her. Nayeon was busy sitting on her suitcase to zip it closed when she heard the latter next to her creak. She watched wide-eyed as Tzuyu came down from the top bunk, bare feet almost slipping on the last step.

Noticing Nayeon’s eyes on her, Tzuyu shrugged, “You’re loud.”

Nayeon was inclined to agree. Tzuyu walked up to her and crouched down, gesturing for her to get off of the suitecase. Nayeon obeyed, too distracted by Tzuyu’s face to protest. The girl looked terrible. Well, that wasn’t completely true, she looked annoyingly beautiful, but also terrible. She reminded her of a mother of five who hadn’t slept in eight years. Nayeon hadn’t realized because her makeup had been flawless, but now that Tzuyu’s face was bare, the bags under her eyes became obvious. They were larger than Nayeon’s bags that were littering the floor of their room. Nayeon noted her exhaustion, but didn’t bring it up. Tzuyu began hanging up the clothes Nayeon had tried to hide in vain. She followed her lead, but still complained about it to make sure Tzuyu knew that she was woefully against not taking the easy way out.

It took an hour until they were both back in bed. Tzuyu was unsurprisingly way more efficient at unpacking than Nayeon was. Maybe the secret was not checking her phone every two seconds. Nayeon hugged Kkaengi tighter, burrowing her face sleepily in her pillow. Every time she was about to doze off though, Tzuyu turned around in her bed, making the whole foundation shake.

“Do you wanna hear a lullaby? I know tons of great ones,” Nayeon said totally unironically, but Tzuyu’s huff seemed to indicate that the girl thought it wasn’t a serious offer.

“It’s true, I sing really well too.” Nayeon yawned, and waited for an answer from her roommate, but it never came. “Mmmh…I’ll learn one in Mandarin for you. I’m sure my voice is just as angelic in every language.”

“No,” Tzuyu said, not being more specific about which part she didn’t agree with.

“Well, I’m gonna do it anyway. You’ll have to help me with the pronunci-”

Nayeon yawned again, sleepily rubbing at her eyes. She forgot was she was going to say, so she just kept quiet, letting sleep take her over.

“I’m…not used to the top bunk.”

Nayeon perked up at that, trying to keep herself awake by tightening her grip on Kkaengi.

“Wanna switch?” Nayeon offered, wondering why the girl had chosen the top bunk if that was the case.

A beat.

“No,” Tzuyu voiced, and Nayeon wasn’t able to discern anything that would clue her in as to what her new roommate was thinking.

After awhile, Nayeon came to grips with the fact that she wouldn’t be able to resist sleep for very much longer.

“Night,” Nayeon mumbled, getting comfortable and taking up the whole space on her double bed.

Tzuyu simply hummed back, and Nayeon dozed off.

***

When Nayeon woke up the next day, she saw that Tzuyu was already gone.

In the midst of moving in, she had completely forgotten who she was sharing a room with.

She should’ve pushed harder for her and Jihyo to be roomed together.

Because Chou Tzuyu was a potential murderer, and all Nayeon had done was snoop in her underwear drawer and offer to sing her a lullaby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :) :)


	3. Love Is So Toxic

_Past_

“According to the security guard, nobody else came through that lobby after 7:30 PM. We’re checking the security cameras right now to verify his story. Is there any other way to go in or out of the building?” Captain Heo turned to face Nayeon despite being already pretty crammed in the elevator.

There were four pairs of eyes on her and Nayeon would usually love the attention, but she was just reminded of the fact that she was a low-tier police officer. She felt woefully inadequate in the presence of people who were way more qualified to investigate a murder than her.

If anything, she was good at faking it until she made it. With that in mind, Nayeon straightened up and put on her serious business face.

“No, only way out is the lobby,” Nayeon nodded, satisfied that her knowledge of the place still held up.

Her answer didn’t seem to convince them though, seeing as it was received with skeptical looks.

“Wait, what about the emergency exits?”

Nayeon squinted at the officer who had spoken up’s name tag, but could only catch sight of the Sergeant badge next to it. Strange, he looked like just a kid to her. She would have scoffed had he not outranked her.

“Of course I thought of the emergency exits…” Nayeon took another try at deciphering the name on his uniform, and finally caught the end of it, “Sergeant Nam.” Nayeon arched a brow at him, but he only seemed eager to know what she had to say. “The alarm goes off as soon as it’s opened, so unless the security guard is deaf, I’d say it’s a pretty sure bet that no one escaped through there.”

Nayeon was starting to get a sore neck because she had to look up at all of them.

Damn tall people.

The elevator finally opened up with a ‘Ding!’, saving her poor neck muscles. Captain Heo lead the charge by power-walking out into the hallway and everyone else struggled to keep up.

“We’ll have them checked, make sure they’re all working properly,” Captain Heo said, stopping abruptly before they got to the crime scene. Even from far away, Nayeon could tell that it was swarming with people. She gulped loudly, wishing she’d had more experience with murder cases. She could count on one hand the number of times she had seen a dead body.

Not much going on in a rural town in the middle of nowhere.

“Uh, Officer Im?” Startled, Nayeon cleared her throat to mask her surprise and tried to subtlety figure out what was written on the second officer’s name tag. Park Jeonghwa. Nayeon hummed for her to continue and the girl bowed slightly in response. She was cute Nayeon decided. “Do the trainees and the artists need, like, an ID or something to go anywhere? I’m just saying because I saw a card reader outside, but I don’t know,” the officer finished by looking at her boss for approval who in turn, looked to Nayeon for the answer.

“Not really, as soon as you’re in, you’re in. You can go everywhere after that.” Nayeon gestured to further down the hallway where doors to the practice rooms and the gym were. She had spent far too many gruelling hours in that fucking gym, wanting nothing more than pass out if it meant no more working out. It also probably didn’t help that she smoked like a chimney at the time. Her lungs were about a decade older than she was.

As if reading her thoughts, Jeongyeon hit her on the arm, apparently coming to a realization, “You used to not be able to go without a cigarette for more than like, ten seconds, and I’m guessing you weren’t the only one. Where did you guys go to smoke?”

Nayeon delayed her being offended at her best-friend’s exaggeration of how much she used to smoke, but only because she was a professional and she had more important matters to attend to.

She’d definitely kick her ass for that comment later though.

“The door to the roof was usually locked, so we just went outside through the-” Nayeon stopped and immediately wanted to slap herself for being such a dumbass. “…The Smoke Exit.” Everyone was looking at her now and she wanted to disappear into oblivion. “Take the staircase on the right and go down until you pass the lobby, there’s a door to the yard. Its alarm is disconnected.”

There was a collective sigh bleeding with discouragement.

“Shit, okay. Nam, take Officer Park with you and check that door. Report back when you’re done. You two,” Captain Heo pointed at her and Jeongyeon, “You’re coming with me. This complicates things, but good catch Yoo.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Jeongyeon said soberly, and Nayeon wondered whether she was not boasting for her sake or just because there was nothing to celebrate. Nayeon wasn’t sure how it complicated things, but by the crestfallen way both of them were walking, it couldn’t be good.

“The mayor isn’t gonna be happy.” Nayeon heard the Captain mumble as they got to the taped off practice room.

Nayeon remembered finding it excessive to have practice rooms in the dorms. That was until she found out that a lot of trainees were insane and practiced all night. Nayeon could never be bothered.

“Is that her, Captain?” A guy in plain clothes said as he held up the yellow tape.

He had his detective badge dangling from a chain around his neck. It was a crime that Nayeon would never be promoted to detective, because she could be pulling off the best outfits.

This guy was practically swimming in his shabby suit.

“No, she’s a random beggar that I picked up on the street,” Captain Heo shot back, firmly passing him and parting the officers in front of her like the red sea. Nayeon snorted as she followed her, ignoring the way the detective looked like a kicked puppy.

“Hey, Wonpil. Don’t worry, it’s not you. We just got news that our suspect list isn’t gonna be limited to those five girls, so we’re kinda in deep shit,” Jeongyeon told him, lowly enough for only Nayeon to pick up and not their boss.

Nayeon left them behind to push through the sea of blue uniforms. After a lot of grunting and elbowing, she finally got to Captain Heo who was hunched over what she assumed was the body.

“Hey, Doc. Find anything interesting?” Nayeon heard the Captain say as she walked up next to her.

The first thing she noticed was the blood. It was everywhere. On the floor, the walls, the knife, the girl…

“I’m here too!” The detective that was already there whined, the sound sounding out of place given the gruesome scene in front of them.

The body was a couple of feet from the doorway. It was leaning against the wall which had taken most of the blood splatter.

The medical examiner, who was crouched besides the body, wagged her finger at the detective, “Hush, you’re disrupting my flow.”

The dead girl’s eyes were still slightly open. Nayeon had the urge to push everyone out of her way so she could fully close them.

“Aren’t you supposed to have a doctorate, why are you calling the examination ‘your flow’?”

Nayeon’s chest constricted painfully.

The girl was so small, all shriveled up on the cold floor with even colder hands needlessly pressed to her bloody neck.

“Can you two shut up, this is not helping.”

She looked so young.

“Hey, you okay?”

Nayeon tore her eyes off of the dead body to look at the detective she didn’t recognize, and tried to nod convincingly, but her brain wouldn’t cooperate and she ended up just wordlessly staring at the woman.

“No, no, no, bad rookie, go away! Hani, don’t let her puke on my crime scene.” 

“What do you mean your crime scene? It’s my crime scene, I’m in charge!”

“Lucas, tell her who’s in charge.”

“Ah, well…Doctor Seo’s in charge. Sorry, Detective.”

“Well, of course he would say that. He’s your assistant. I can do that too. Wonpil, get your butt over here and tell her I’m in charge!”

Nayeon tuned out the bickering and tried to take a deep breath, but all she could smell was the metallic scent of blood. She coughed and her eyes teared up. The mention of vomit had made her nauseous.

Hands were placed on her shoulders and Nayeon closed her eyes, unable to give Captain Heo the satisfaction of seeing her crumble just because of a dead body.

She had been in the force for two years for fuck’s sake.

“Go outside, catch your breath and come back when you’re ready. Yoo, go with her?”

“Yeah, come on Nay,” Jeongyeon’s voice rang out softly from behind her, and she was passed from one pair of hands to another.

So that’s how she wound up being guided like a child out of the room and far away enough for the chatter to become intelligible. By sheer will alone, Nayeon managed to hold it in until they got to the bathroom. Twenty or so strangers witnessing her barf all over the floor was not something that she was eager to experience. Embarrassment was one hell of a motivator.

Hunched over the toilet, she felt tears prickle at the corner of her eyes as she threw up her last meal. Jeongyeon thankfully stayed outside the stall as she was busy heaving away and emptying her stomach. Not that it was something that the girl hadn’t seen before – many were the nights where Nayeon had had one too many drinks after going out on the town. Jeongyeon had once tried to stay to hold her hair up and that had resulted in Nayeon drunkenly kicking her in the shins to ger her to leave as she hurled.

Nayeon closed her eyes when she was finally able to catch her breath again. Every time she thought that she was done though, the image of blood came rushing back and so did the nausea. Eventually, nothing was left to throw up, so Nayeon just curled up on the floor and waited.

She felt gross, pathetic, and angry at herself for thinking that this had been a good idea.

With a parting punch to the stall door that had her cradling her fist in pain, she got up and exited towards the sink where Jeongyeon was waiting patiently. Of course, her best friend did not have the decency to pretend like she had not needlessly injured her hand by assaulting an inanimate object.

“What did that door ever do to you?”

“It looked at me funny,” she croaked out, throat still raw.

Jeongyeon gave her a pity chuckle as Nayeon went to splash water in her face and wash up.

She was mid gargle when Jeongyeon spoke up again, “Her name is - was Son Chaeyoung.” There was a brief pause as Nayeon spit out the water in her mouth so that she wouldn’t choke on it. “She was supposed to turn twenty in a couple of weeks.”

Nayeon sighed as Jeongyeon handed her paper towels to dry up. It didn’t sound like her best friend to guilt her into working a case, but it sure felt like that was what she was doing.

“I’m going home. Find yourself another ex-JYP trainee to milk for information,” Nayeon said, balling up the used paper towels and throwing them in the trash.

“Then why did you come in at all?” Jeongyeon grabbed her arm as she was about to leave and Nayeon scowled at her, “I know why you did. You couldn’t let someone get away with murder just because of some stupid shit like politics, money, power... Not again. Not when you could help and do something about it this time.”

Nayeon snatched her arm away, “No, you don’t know. I came in because I thought that it would help me get transferred out of the shithole where I work, just like you thought that solving this case would get you promoted to detective one day. You think I don’t know that you’re guilting me into helping right now, because you want to show off in front of your Captain?” Jeongyeon’s eyes guiltily shifted downwards as she took in the accusation. Nayeon scoffed, using her uninjured hand to push the girl back when it looked like she was about to try and explain herself. “And fuck you for using my dad to do it.”

Nayeon was beyond fed up with everything, so with poison on her tongue and murder on her mind, she stormed out of the bathroom intent on mowing down anyone who would dare get in her way. She was removing herself from whatever fucked up equation Jeongyeon had come up with to solve that girl’s murder.

Son Chaeyoung, she reminded herself.

Sure, Nayeon would have the image of the crime scene tattooed behind her eyelids for probably far too long, but that alone wasn’t enough to make her stay. She already had plenty of disturbing images floating in her head every time she closed her eyes - what was one more going to do? Nayeon had no responsibility to anyone here, she just wanted to go back to her dog, take a shower (cry in said shower) and then sleep, hopefully, forever. Or at least the two weeks until she had to get back to work, because money and capitalism.

The universe definitely had it out for her. She wasn’t two feet out the door than the one person who could manage to make her not run away strode up to her. Although Nayeon had been set on clocking the next person she saw, she could never do that to Park Jihyo. Not after how badly she had wronged her.

Nayeon almost didn’t recognize the younger girl it had been so long. Her cheeks weren’t chubby anymore, though they were a bit bloated, but that was probably due to the crying more than anything.

Jihyo outran the police officer she was with and got close enough to Nayeon to grab onto her uniform desperately, “You…you’ll know what to do. You used to always know what to do. You can help, I just-I’m useless, but you can do it. You can find out who ki- who did it,” Jihyo pleaded with a strained voice. Her eyes were red and puffy. Nayeon watched helplessly as Jihyo clawed at her shoulders like it could make her understand better. “It’s my fault, I know it’s my fault, but- but you’re gonna help me make it right. You fucking owe me. You have to find out who killed her. You have to-you have to…”

Jihyo let out a broken sob and her grip on Nayeon’s uniform got impossibly tighter. The anger directed at Nayeon, and no doubt at herself, had abled her to power through the words at first. Eventually, the tears won out and ran down her cheeks to replace the previously dried out ones.

Nayeon exhaled shakily, before instinctively reaching out to wrap the smaller girl in a hug. Jihyo protested the embrace with unintelligible curses and weak punches to her chest. Nayeon just held her tighter, enduring it until all the fight finally left her body and only sobs remained.

“Okay. I’ll do it,” Nayeon whispered, to which Jihyo responded by burrowing further into her arms while repeatedly hitting her shoulder. “I’ll do it,” she repeated softly, grabbing Jihyo’s wrist that was hitting her in order to keep it from getting hurt on her badge.

“I promise.”

An alarm started blaring in the hallway and Nayeon practically jumped out of her bones at the sound. Jihyo had no such reaction, detaching herself slowly from Nayeon before looking blankly at the floor, still sniffling occasionally. And just like that, the alarm stopped just as suddenly as it had started.

“I’m sorry to interrupt.” The voice rang out from behind them and Nayeon saw Jeongyeon, who she hadn’t noticed until now, turn towards it. “Captain Heo said to get you. It’s time to go.”

“What’s with the alarm?” Jeongyeon asked, and Nayeon couldn’t help but notice that her voice sounded a little rough. She tried not to care, and shut out whatever worry she would have once felt.

“I don’t know, but we gotta go.” Nayeon finally turned around to see that Detective Wonpil - or Detective Lanky as she had just decided to dub him - had been the one talking to them. He looked worried. He kept glancing behind them as if he was watching out for someone. “They’re coming.”

How ominous.

The hand painfully clutching her own kept her grounded as Nayeon got the pressing urge to leave again. She couldn’t read Jihyo who was stubbornly standing behind her, so she didn’t know whether the nails digging into her palm were a warning or a simple reminder of her promise.

“Already!? But we’re not ready,” Jeongyeon said, apparently in the know.

“We don’t have a choice.” Detective Lanky shrugged, though a little too briskly for it to be considered nonchalant. He seemed eager for them to get the hell out of there.

Running a hand through her hair, Jeongyeon looked briefly at her before setting off towards the crime scene. Nayeon went to follow, but was held back by an iron grip. She looked behind her and saw that Jihyo was trembling slightly, though the crying had seemed to stop. It felt so foreign to see her like this, all fragile and defeated. The officer that had been with her when she arrived was now nowhere to be seen. With a sigh, Nayeon tugged her forward until she started following with little to no resistance.

“What’s the plan?” Jeongyeon said once they caught up to Captain Heo.

The Captain looked up from her phone and Nayeon could’ve sworn that she saw an excited glint in her eyes.

“We’re going to catch a murderer. And we have about an hour to do it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :) :) :)

**Author's Note:**

> :)


End file.
